Tuesday, December 8, 2009

31.5 weeks & counting...

Looking back over this blog, some of you (especially those who followed the progress of Elynor's pregnancy) may be wondering if I'm really pregnant. Poor Baby Girl #2... hopefully my lack of pregnancy documentation does not predict the documentation pattern for her future!

At any rate, the answer is YES!, I am preggo... actually feeling oh-so-preggo in recent weeks. The back aches are still not as intense as those I experienced with Elynor, but they have snuck in. So, too, has the difficulty sleeping and fatigue by the end of each day. But, alas, that's par for the course, right!?

At last week's ultrasound we learned this little girl (or Coco, as Elynor sometimes calls her!?) is tracking at the 80%tile (currently 4 lbs. 3 oz.)! For those comparing, this is really exciting because it's smaller than Elynor was at this point. I suppose many of you would argue this isn't too difficult to accomplish, considering E was 11 lbs. 3 oz. at birth, but given my diabetes and genetics, bigger babies seem to be in the cards. If she gains approx. 1/2 lb./week and I deliver at 39 weeks (they won't let diabetic women go later), we could be close to 9 lbs! Of course, there is no guarantee... the next several weeks will be critical with my blood sugar management directly impacting the final birth weight. But this has renewed my resolve to keep the blood sugars tight. We'll reassess her growth in about 4 weeks.

Here's what she looks like (Rye & I think very similar to E's ultrasounds):

And here's what I look like (what woman willingly takes these shots?! this is for you, later, little girl...):For comparison, this is approximately the same point in Elynor's pregnancy:

I'm looking a bit bigger this time around... probably because that tends to be the trend with subsequent pregnancies and there's a little extra fluid in the placenta (evidently this happens w/ diabetic women, for reasons they can't explain). The good news is the extra fluid presents little concern other than my water may break a little early (darn!). Mostly it's just an inconvenience for me carrying bigger (but praise God, it will disappear upon delivery).